This kind of freedom is very invaluable, especially when you’re outside and have a cane or a guide dog in a hand already. This is a game-changer for me and my independence.

ANAHEIM, Calif. and THE HAGUE, Netherlands (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Envision, the award-winning iOS and Android smartphone app that enables blind and visually impaired people to independently access visual information around them, announced plans today to integrate its AI-powered software technology into Google Glass at CSUN, one of the biggest assistive technology conferences in the US. Envision developed its software on Google Glass, with the recently upgraded hardware of their Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2. The combination of Envision’s software with Google Glass provides blind and visually impaired users with a significantly less obtrusive and hands-free way of accessing the world around them — empowering users with greater freedom and independence to access and ‘see’ the world around them. View a short video of how Envision works here.

How Envision Works.

Envision’s software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to extract different kinds of information from images and then speaks the images out loud so the user has a greater understanding of the environment around him or her. Envision’s software provides the fastest and most accurate OCR (Optical Character Recognition) available, and can read any type of text from any surface (e.g., food packaging, posters, computer display screens, QR and barcodes, handwritten text, etc.), recognize faces, describe scenes, detect colors, find objects, read complex documents and letters, and more. The software is also the most diverse on the market today, capable of recognizing text and scripts in more than 60 languages. Envision enables blind and low-vision users worldwide to read documents at work, recognize their friends, find personal belongings at home, and use public transport — independently on their own.

Envision on Smart Glasses.

First available as an iOS and Android smartphone app, Envision was awarded the Best Accessibility App at the 2019 Google Play Awards. As the next step in the company’s evolution, Envision’s software will now be embedded in smart glasses, providing blind and visually impaired users with a significantly more unobtrusive and hands-free way to access the world around them. One of Envision’s Smart Glasses beta testers, Joy, said, “This kind of freedom is very invaluable, especially when you’re outside and have a cane or a guide dog in a hand already. This is a game-changer for me and my independence.”

“Working with Google Glass’ technical specifications and build quality has been ideal for our development needs,” said Karthik Kannan, co-founder of Envision. “The level of support we’ve received from the Google Glass team has enabled us to replicate the fantastic user experience of the Envision app and deliver it in a seamless way that empowers blind and visually impaired people worldwide with a hands-free, easy way to ‘see’ the world around them through the spoken word.”

The availability of Envision’s assistive technology embedded into smart glasses serves an important, timely need. According to data from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), out of a global population of 7.3 billion, 253 million people (29%) globally are visually impaired, of which 36 million are blind and 217 million with moderate to severe visual impairment.

“We’re excited Envision is using Glass Enterprise Edition to help people more easily access the visual information around them and get things done,” said Melvin Chua, Head of Partnerships at Google Glass.

Available for pre-order starting March 9, 2020, Envision’s AI-powered smart glasses are available at a reduced price ($1,699 super early bird and $1,899 early bird), and will retail for $2,099 once shipping begins to early buyers in August 2020. Access the Envision press kit here.

About Envision

Envision uses AI-powered software to extract different kinds of information from images and speaks them out loud, enabling blind and low-vision users to read documents at work, recognize their friends, find personal belongings at home, and use public transport — all fully independently. The software can read all kinds of text in more than 60 languages, recognize faces, describe scenes, detect colors, find objects and so much more. Envision is available for use in two different ways: on smart glasses as embedded, hands-free technology, and as a smartphone app available on both iOS and Android. Envision was awarded the Best Accessibility App at the 2019 Google Play Awards.

Founded in late 2017, Envision is a privately held company located in The Hague in the Netherlands. Read our blog, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or learn more at https://www.letsenvision.com/.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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AX Semantics, the easiest way to automate your content production

“Financial reports that used to take analysts and executives days to produce can now be completed in seconds using AX Semantics, saving significant resources in terms of man-hours and costs,” said Saim Rolf Alkan, CEO and founder of AX Semantics.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and STUTTGART, Germany (PRWEB)
March 10, 2020

AX Semantics, an AI-powered, natural language generation (NLG) leader, today announced a new range of content generation software for the financial services and banking sector. Available in more than 110 languages, AX Semantics’ addresses the pain point of recurring financial reports, regulatory filings, executive summaries, and other written communication – all of which typically require massive amounts of financial data from disparate sources to be gathered, analyzed and translated into text customized for a broad range of audiences and languages. AX Semantics’ NLG software powered by AI automates these processes. It produces smartly-written narratives that read the same as if a human wrote them — automating tedious, resource-intensive tasks and allowing financial firms to access “new gold” by analyzing and understanding their customer and product data faster than their competitors.

Financial analysts, brokers, and executives face the demand to quickly update the content required by state and federal laws and regulations, such as details about investment plans, risk assessments, and financial filings — all of which must be updated regularly. AX Semantics’ NLG software enables finance employees to effortlessly turn mountains of data into real-time actionable written narratives, create reports, descriptions of terms and loans, draft regulatory filings, and documents detailing investments — all with minimal training — freeing up bandwidth for higher-value activities and responsibilities.

“Financial services companies now have a simple way not only to produce content but to also rapidly revise it when there has been an important development or a new regulation — saving significant resources in terms of man-hours and costs,” said Saim Rolf Alkan, CEO and founder of AX Semantics. “Financial reports that used to take analysts and executives days to produce can now be completed in seconds using AX Semantics.”

AX Semantics content generation features for finance include:

• NLG output based on structured data: allows users to easily configure projects to any structure and import tools and formats including JSON, CSV and Excel, and API for integration into existing systems without the need for complex IT projects;
• Topic and domain-independent technology: all types of text can be generated, not just a limited set of topics – in up to 110 different languages;
• Real-time, multi-user capability and workflows: multiple people can work on a project at the same time, allowing scaled project sizes, while retaining the ability to test and deploy
• Data protection and hybrid cloud availability: with certifiable processes and infrastructure that can be used for confidential information up to HIPAA/PHI level, and Sarbanes–Oxley/MARisk certifiable processes.

Mario Berger, risk advisory director at Deloitte, said the firm experienced an almost 80% reduction in time spent on projects like recurring reports by using content generation software. “In our estimation, projects in this environment are significantly more successful if parts or even the entire ‘path’ of the process is automated – i.e., data management, for example, using Natural Language Processing. We consider the fundamental potential to be very high.”

In the finance sector, AX Semantics currently works with Deloitte, Creditreform, Ebner Stolz and others – as well as more than 500 customers in sectors like media, pharmaceutical, e-Commerce, including Fortune 500 companies such as Porsche and Nivea.

AX Semantics offers a subscription-based service, with fees between $279 and $1699 per month for financial services companies and banks of all sizes. A managed service is also available on top of the self-service platform for new product development purposes and customers that don’t have qualified in-house resources. The software is 100% SaaS – everything is available via a web browser, with no programming or IT departments required. Self-service with integrated e-learning allows customers to start automating text within 48 hours, often less. Learn more at sales@ax-semantics.com.

About AX Semantics

AX Semantics is an AI-powered, natural language generation (NLG) software company built to address today’s biggest content generation challenges. Our sophisticated SaaS-based solution effortlessly creates vast quantities of content at scale – to populate an entire website, tackle time-intensive financial reporting and regulatory requirements filings, fill a news section with earnings reports, generate 1000s of product descriptions for e-commerce brands, produce social media content, create easy-to-read weather and news reports, and more. We make automated content generation – in more than 110 languages, in a manner of minutes – a reality for customers of all sizes within the e-commerce, business, finance and media publishing sectors.

Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany with an additional office in Sunnyvale, California, AX Semantics is a privately-held company backed by Airbridge Equity Partners. Follow us on social at Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, or learn more at https://en.ax-semantics.com.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Acer America today announced that it is one of the first to offer schools and education customers a set of creativity apps that can be easily deployed and managed through Google Admin Console.

“The new creativity tools paired with Acer Chromebooks encourage students to express thoughts, design products, spark ideas, collaborate with classmates, create multimedia and more,” said Nidhi Tassone, Senior Manager, Commercial Marketing, Acer America.

San Jose, CA (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Acer America today announced that it is one of the first to offer schools and education customers a set of creativity apps that can be easily deployed and managed through Google Admin Console. For 40 million Chromebook users worldwide, Acer is making purchasing and managing app licenses easier than ever and helping schools boost student learning.

Acer education customers can work directly with Acer to purchase and license the creativity apps, and then deploy and manage them via the Google Admin Console for use on Chromebooks by faculty, staff and students. This process simplifies the app lifecycle, especially for administrators rolling out new apps and managing them at scale across schools and districts. Also, it makes the login process easier for students, since every app in the collection uses Google Sign-In to quickly and securely confirm the app license and unlock all features and content.

This new licensing program is being rolled out with an initial collection of six creativity tools for Chromebooks: Book Creator for creating books, Soundtrap for music and podcasts, Infinite Painter for artwork, Squid for diagrams and notes, WeVideo for video creation, and Explain Everything for screencasts. With these ready-to-use apps and Acer Chromebooks, students are empowered with the powerful creativity tools they need to keep up with a modern curriculum.

“The new creativity tools paired with Acer Chromebooks encourage students to express thoughts, design products, spark ideas, collaborate with classmates, create multimedia and more,” said Nidhi Tassone, Senior Manager, Commercial Marketing, Acer America. “Plus, the streamlined system of purchasing, deploying and provisioning these transformational new apps will help administrators and teachers focus on the most important part of their job – helping students learn.”

Pricing varies by license quantity and apps. Education customers in North America can contact SWlicensing@acer.com for more information from Acer.

About Acer

Founded in 1976, today Acer is one of the world’s top ICT companies and has a presence in over 160 countries. As Acer looks into the future, it is focused on enabling a world where hardware, software and services will infuse with one another to open up new possibilities for consumers and businesses alike. From service-oriented technologies to the Internet of Things to gaming and virtual reality, Acer’s 7,000+ employees are dedicated to the research, design, marketing, sale, and support of products and solutions that break barriers between people and technology. Please visit http://www.acer.com for more information.

© 2020 Acer America Corp. All rights reserved. Acer and the Acer logo are registered trademarks of Acer Inc. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners. All offers subject to change without notice or obligation and may not be available through all sales channels. Prices listed are manufacturer suggested retail prices and may vary by location. Applicable sales tax extra.

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NEW YORK (PRWEB)
March 10, 2020

Despite having hundreds of tools at their disposal, IT and security teams are rapidly losing sight of their asset landscape. That’s the finding from a new survey from Axonius, which reveals how trends including the ever-increasing number of end-user devices, rapid cloud adoption, and the looming IoT explosion are leading to increased complexity and risk and decreased visibility.

The study from Enterprise Strategy Group, commissioned by cybersecurity asset management company Axonius, and titled “2020 Asset Management Trends: As IT Complexity Increases, Visibility Plummets,” first reveals that today’s IT infrastructure barely resembles what it was just five years ago, and a confluence of megatrends are all rising to impact IT and security teams.

“When we speak with customers from the midmarket up to the Fortune 100, we hear the same challenges: teams are faced with too many assets, a patchwork of security tools, and maddeningly manual processes to understand what is there and whether those assets are secure,” said Dean Sysman, CEO and Co-Founder at Axonius. “This survey with ESG uncovers the depth and breadth of the asset management challenges we see today and what’s on the horizon.”

The survey of 200 IT and cybersecurity professionals from private and public-sector organizations in North America found that the move to the public cloud, an increase in the number of end-user devices, and IoT projects all contribute to a lack of visibility. Specifically, the study found that 52% of VMs now reside in the cloud, running in multiple cloud environments, making it increasingly more challenging for organizations to manage them effectively. At the same time, container usage is mainstream among cloud users, with continued predicted growth that will add further complexity.

While bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trends began more than 15 years ago, organizations are still grappling with evolving BYOD policies, especially with a typical employee now using more than four devices each week. As a result, organizations believe they are blind to about 40% of end-user-devices. At the same time, IoT continues to play an increasing role in the workplace, with more than half of organizations reporting active IoT projects. Yet, 77% report an IoT visibility gap.

This decrease in visibility correlates directly to an increase in risk. The survey found that 75% of organizations have experienced several serious cloud VM security incidents as a result of cloud visibility gaps, and 73% admit to experiencing multiple serious incidents as a result of an end user device visibility gap. In fact, organizations with visibility gaps experience 2.3x more security incidents than those without.

“Together, these changes are putting enormous pressure on IT and security teams, who are already struggling to find new management and security tools that can keep up,” said Dave Gruber, Senior Analyst, ESG. “VMs, new devices, and new device types are driving complexity. Most say that they already have too many tools, yet still report visibility gaps in what they can see versus what they want to see across cloud, mobile, and IoT environments. This gap directly translates into added security risk. 85% of organizations plan to increase investment in asset management to help overcome these issues.”

To regain the visibility needed to combat these challenges, security and IT teams are returning to a focus on the fundamentals like investing in gaining a credible inventory and automating asset management. Comprehensive IT asset inventories take over two weeks of effort, requiring 89 person-hours of labor. On average, they happen 19 times per year, demanding the involvement of multiple teams and people, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the survey found 85% of organizations plan to increase investment in asset management to help overcome these issues– especially in light of the fact that roughly 90% expect the time freed up from asset-related tasks would have a material improvement on threat hunting and incident investigation.

To read the full report, ESG eBook, “2020 Asset Management Trends: As IT Complexity Increases, Visibility Plummets,” visit https://axoni.us/2VTeVAv.

About Axonius

Axonius is the cybersecurity asset management platform that gives organizations a comprehensive asset inventory, uncovers security solution coverage gaps, and automatically validates and enforces security policies. By seamlessly integrating with nearly 200 security and management solutions, Axonius is deployed in minutes, improving cyber hygiene immediately. Covering millions of devices at customers like the New York Times, Schneider Electric, ThermoFisher, Landmark Health, Fiserv, and many more, Axonius was named to CNBC’s 2019 Upstart 100 List and was named Rookie Security Company of the Year by SC Magazine. For more, visit Axonius.com.

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“Industry 4.0 companies will be fully data-driven and AI-enabled. Our aim is to provide executives with the definitive playbook and benchmarking platform to assess where they stand on AI and what they need to do to seize their cognitive future,” said Lou Celi, CEO of ESI ThoughtLab

PHILADELPHIA (PRWEB)
March 10, 2020

ESI ThoughtLab, a leading economic research firm, today announced Driving ROI Through AI, an in-depth research program that will provide executives with an evidence-based roadmap for transforming their companies into high-performance enterprises powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

While some ROI analysis on AI exists, it is generally anecdotal and fails to present the variations by industry, company size, and location needed for proper benchmarking and decision making. To fill this information gap, ESI is working with global AI leaders, including Deloitte, DataRobot, Cognizant, Publicis Sapient, Cortex, and Dataiku, as well as AI experts from academia and business, to conduct a rigorous research program into the AI investment plans, practices, and performance returns of 1,200 companies across 12 industries and 16 countries.

A rigorous mixed methods approach

The study will cover five main areas of AI: robotic process automation, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. In addition to comprehensive quantitative research, including an AI benchmarking survey and performance impact modeling, ESI ThoughtLab will conduct peer group meetings and one-on-one personal interviews.

The main research objectives are to:

• 
  Examine the corporate areas of greatest AI investments and progress to date
• Measure the level of investment by type of AI and business function
• Identify use cases across the enterprise functions that generate the highest ROI
• Analyze the full ROI across a range of value drivers, from productivity and cost savings to revenue growth and customer engagement
• Validate leading practices by correlating them with actual business results
• Examine organizational, governance, and ethical issues around AI

“Industry 4.0 companies will be fully data-driven and AI-enabled. Our aim is to provide executives with the definitive playbook and benchmarking platform to assess where they stand on AI and what they need to do to seize their cognitive future,” said Lou Celi, CEO of ESI ThoughtLab and the program’s director.

Additional information can be found by visiting http://www.esithoughtlab.com. For further information, please contact:

Lou Celi, Program Director

ESI ThoughtLab

917-459-4614

Lceli@esithoughtlab.com

-or-

Mike Daly, Marketing Director

ESI ThoughtLab

215-717-2777

Mdaly@esithoughtlab.com

About the research coalition

ESI ThoughtLab is the thought leadership arm of Econsult Solutions Inc., a leading economic consultancy. The innovative think tank offers fresh ideas and evidence-based analysis to help business and government leaders understand and respond to economic, industry, and technological shifts around the world. Its team of top economists and thought leaders excels at creating valuable decision support that combines visionary thinking, analytical excellence, and multi-format content.

Appen collects and labels images, text, speech, audio, and video used to build and continuously improve the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence systems. With expertise in more than 180 languages, a global crowd of over 1 million skilled contractors, and the industry’s most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform, Appen solutions provide the quality, security, and speed required by leaders in technology, automotive, financial services, retail, manufacturing, and governments worldwide. Founded in 1996, Appen has customers and offices around the world.

Cognizant is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming client’s business, operating, and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 193 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world.

Cortex is the enterprise SaaS solution for Marketing Executives at leading brands to predict the performance of their visuals using AI and Machine Learning. By leveraging Cortex’s powerful consumer insights, brands such as Marriot, Kao, Mondelez, and more are creating award-winning visual creative, at scale, that drives reliable results.

Dataiku is the platform democratizing access to data and enabling enterprises to build their own path to AI. More than 300 customers and 30,000 users (from data scientists to architects to analysts) across retail, e-commerce, health care, finance, transportation, the public sector, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and more use Dataiku to massively scale AI efforts.

DataRobot is the leader in enterprise AI, delivering trusted AI technology and ROI enablement services to global enterprises competing in today’s Intelligence Revolution. The company’s proven combination of cutting-edge software and world-class AI implementation, training, and support services empowers any organization—regardless of size, industry, or resources—to drive better business outcomes with AI. With a singular focus on AI since its inception, DataRobot has a proven track record of delivering AI with ROI. DataRobot has offices across the globe and $431 million in funding from top-tier firms, including New Enterprise Associates, Sapphire Ventures, Meritech, and DFJ Growth. For more information, please visit http://www.datarobot.com

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 5,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today’s marketplace—delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Now celebrating 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloitte’s more than 312,000 people worldwide make an impact that matters at http://www.deloitte.com  

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organizations get digitally enabled, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value through a start-up mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting, and customer experience with agile engineering and problem-solving creativity. As digital pioneers with 20,000 people and 53 offices around the globe, our experience spanning technology, data sciences, consulting, and customer obsession – combined with our culture of curiosity and relentlessness – enables us to accelerate our clients’ businesses through designing the products and services their customers truly value. Publicis Sapient is the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe.